I am continuing with the short row concept here. There are a couple of things I like about the short rows. I like that the hat looks different from different angles. I got the idea for hats that look different on different sides because I was watching the Australian Open and Eugenie Bouchard had a skirt that was like this. I have a way to go before I capture what I want from the skirt, but this hat is the one I like best so far.

The other reason I like short rows is that I can use stitches which I am not sure work in the round. Some stitches have stuff going on on the return row of the instructions which I am not sure work if you do them from the front of the knitting. Any stitch that just has you knit the knits and purl the purls on the back of the work are fine in the round. I am always careful to maintain the integrity of Barbara Walker’s stitches, so if I am not sure if they will translate into the round, I do them on straight needles with a seam (ugh!). Neither of these stitches (Threaded Stitch, pg 132 or Quatrefoil Eyelet, pg 171) would actually have to be done on straight needles, but I may use the short row thing if I have stitches like that.

I cast on 100 stitches with black and did 4 rows of garter stitch, I switched to pink and threaded stitch and started short rows after a few rows. When I had finished the short rows, I did four more rows of garter stitch then switched to grey and increased to 104. I joined the grey where the short rows ended at the highest point on the front and did a repeat of the quatrefoil eyelet before starting short rows again. I did four rows of black garter stitch again and switched back to pink and decreased to 90 stitches. I knitted the top using Waterfall Pattern, pg 151. I did a full pattern repeat, then got rid of every third repeat, then every other repeat and then the rest of the stitches.